Tag Archives: Meetup

The bitcoin meetup this week was a blast! We packed one corner of the Kitchen restaurant with people of all ages and experience levels. We celebrated Mark, the owner of Portsmouth Smoke and Vape, becoming the newest addition to the World Famous Bitcoin Tour. His business is unique on the tour, as it is the first downtown retail store to take cryptocurrency — and he takes a lot! They accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash, Litecoin, and ZCash.

Some people had heard about the meetup from the flyers posted around town — others from visiting the store — and still others from searching Meetup.com. It was a good mix of people. One guy downloaded his first bitcoin wallet and funded it by trading someone at the table for $5 in cash. He was surprised how fast and easy it was, and that it required no signup at all.

The food and service was notably excellent, as it often is at the Kitchen. The staff knew we were having a bitcoin meetup and treated us super nice. They delivered some food out to us (which is not normal — usually you pick it up from the counter yourself). And they let us linger a bit after they closed, since we were having so much fun talking and learning from each other.

Charles shared with us about a cool thing the Portland Bitcoin meetup group is doing: they’re issuing their own cryptocurrency and awarding it to people who attend and participate by speaking. It would be so awesome to have someone spend that cryptocurrency to purchase merchandise at the Free State Bitcoin Shoppe!

The next Portsmouth bitcoin meetup will be at the Fresh Press on Sunday, October 15 at 2pm. The Shoppe will be closed for the next 2 weeks as Steven and Derrick will be in Prague for the Hackers Congress. We’ll have lots of great info and fun pictures and video to share, so follow us on Twitter.

Last night I went to Strange Brew Tavern in Manchester for their 200th bitcoin meetup. It is the longest running consecutive bitcoin meet up in the world — going for almost 4 years now.

People talked about mining ethereum and being dash masternodes — they talked about successful strategies for encouraging businesses and individuals to take cryptocurrencies as payment — and they talked about achieving more personal freedom in New Hampshire. I was impressed by the turnout. About 2 dozen or so people. A range of all types: gay and straight, techies, real estate people, media people, old, middle aged, and young mothers and their children. The group gets the whole back room in the tavern and received excellent service the whole night.

I asked if I could tip my waiter in bitcoin, but he said that he doesn’t have a wallet anymore. He got a new phone and lost all the bitcoin the patrons had given him over the past years. After that, he was really sour on bitcoin and was unwilling to accept it, even as a tip on top of the cash tip I left him. After about 2 hours of chatter, people started to clear out. I was disappointed that there wasn’t a big photo op moment where everyone crowded in and memorialized this event. I supposed I could have tried organizing that, but I didn’t.

I should mention also that there’s another bar in Manchester, Murphy’s Taproom, that not only accepts bitcoin but they also have one of the best bitcoin vending machines for hundreds of miles around. I don’t understand why this bitcoin meetup group doesn’t support Murphy’s and instead goes to a place that doesn’t accept bitcoin, but I see it as an opportunity. There can be a meetup for the crowd that likes cheap beer and a meetup for a crowd that likes to spread bitcoin.

For now, I’ll continue spreading the word about bitcoin in my hometown of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where my Bikram Yoga Studio started accepting bitcoin this week. Namaste.

I should add:

Weekly meetups like the one in Manchester give the bitcoin community a pulse. It says to the world, “We’re alive and growing — bitcoin hasn’t gone anywhere.” In fact, the people at this meetup would be just as happy to help a n00b set up their first bitcoin wallet as they would to discuss Ethereum mining or their Dash Masternode. Manchester’s monumental 200th meetup also shows outsiders that crypto is mainstream — not a bunch of geeks in forums. Bitcoiners are your neighbors, your waitress, and the guys playing pool at the bar.